Originally posted 07/18/07

You are “sorry”?  Really?  Were you really apologizing to the victims? Or to the Vatican because the gig is up and you finally have to spend some of your precious treasure and fortune?  Cardinal Mahoney the time for “sorry” expired when you hid your first child molesting priest in a different parish.  The time for “sorry” would have been when that first family came to the church to claim their child had been sexually abused by one of your employees.  The time for “sorry” would have been when the vast extent of child abuse among the priests of your Archdiocese finally came to light from the dark recesses of your file cabinets and heart.
 
It is easy for me to say since I was not one of the many victims of priest molestation, but if I was presented with the measly settlement that in the end will probably amount to less than one million dollars per victim—a lot of money to be sure—I would have said, “Go to hell and let’s go to trial.”  I would not care if the risk was no compensation, no punitive damages, no pay out.  For me the payout would have been Cardinal Roger Mahony taking the oath and then having the quandary of telling the truth about his decades long cover up of the vilest of the vile, child molesters, or lying under oath to further cover up and conceal his obstruction of justice.
 
Were I Catholic I think I would be at odds as to what is the worse transgression by the Cardinal and the Church: obstruction of justice or the permanent damage to my faith and trust in my Church and place of spiritual refuge.  Think of the offerings in the collection plate that went to pay the priest that was abusing your neighbor the altar boy.  The funds raised from your work at the parish carnival going to the Archdioceses to buy more file cabinets to house more dossiers of pedophiles protected by the Cardinal whose ring you yearn to touch with your lips and heart.  “Sorry” would not cover this.
 
It is my sincere hope that District Attorney Steve Cooley and/or Attorney General Jerry Brown file obstruction charges against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahoney and anyone else that allowed this horrible history of repeated abuse to continue.  If Cardinal Mahoney were truly sorry he would resign his position, accept his responsibility in the destruction of hundreds of lives and families and the loss of faith of perhaps thousands.
 
$600 Million and an apology? Go to hell.